The invention relates to packaging for shipping, storing and dispensing products. More particularly, the invention relates to a paperboard carton that can be used to package, ship, store and dispense a variety of products, such as consumer products and, more particularly, beverage containers. Such beverage containers may come in various configurations such as cylindrical cans, bottles of various configurations or flexible pouches having a substantially trapezoidal configuration.
For many years, beverage companies, such as soft drink, fruit juice and beer companies have packaged their products in light weight paperboard cartons and shipped such products to a retail outlet or some other location where consumers can purchase the products. There are many different types of cartons that can be used for packaging and shipping products from the manufacturer to the retailer. However, many of these cartons tend to be large and are designed to hold large numbers of products. Such cartons are suitable for “warehouse” type operations but are difficult for the consumer to use when the consumer needs smaller quantities for typical household activities.
Products can be packaged in smaller cartons containing quantities of product that a consumer would typically want to purchase for use in a relatively short period of time, such as ten or a dozen individual items. It is desirable for these smaller quantities of product to be packaged in smaller cartons that can be displayed for sale to the consumer at a typical retail outlet. In order to maximize the use of valuable floor space at the retail outlet, such smaller cartons may be stacked on top of each other to minimize the footprint left by the cartons and to provide an attractive display to entice the consumer to buy the product. Unfortunately, such stacking can result in damage to the carton causing the consumer to assume that the individual products packaged within the carton are damaged as well. This is bad for the retailer because such perceived damaged goods are more difficult to sell and thus can result in lower profits.
Another attribute that is desirable for such paperboard cartons is to ensure that the cartons are easily opened. This facilitates easy access by the consumer to the products, such as beverage containers, located therein. These paperboard cartons with easy opening features appeal to consumers because such cartons provide an easy way for the consumer to transport a number of products, such as beverage containers, therein from the retail outlet to the consumer's home. Moreover, the dispensing openings allow the paperboard cartons to also be stored in an easily accessible location in the consumer's home, such as the refrigerator, to allow neat storage of the product therein while providing easy access to the product one at a time.
Although some paperboard cartons having dispensing openings therein are currently available and generally work for their intended purposes they could be improved. For example, some of these cartons are in fact difficult to open. In addition, some of the cartons having such dispensing openings can have compromised structural integrity because of such openings. This problem can be exacerbated where cold beverage containers are packaged in the cartons in a warm and humid environment. This may result in condensation forming on the beverage containers. The moisture will have a deleterious effect on the paperboard carton.
Therefore, there is still a need to provide an easy opening paperboard carton with improved stacking strength that may be used to package and ship individual items from the manufacturer to a retail outlet and that can also be used in homes and other consumer locations.